The Number One Reason You’re Losing Your Best Candidates?

It’s just a matter of time.

“49 percent of candidates declined job offers because they accepted an offer from another company during the second half of [2014]”. “The ‘availability cycle’ of a potential recruit has decreased to just 24 hours, rather than the 2-3 weeks that businesses became accustomed to during the recession.”

Over the last few months, recruitment blogs have been rife with panicked headlines about losing candidates during the hiring process – and if you’re not worrying about it, you probably should be. In 2015 the recruitment market is candidate led, with an abundance of opportunities but a shortage of skills, putting the power firmly in the hands of strong candidates. And if your company has a 7 stage interview process while your competitor is doing one interview and then making an offer the same week – why would any candidate wait for you?

Using a specialist search firm (such as ourselves) is a good first step, we have the time and resources to keep track of a candidate and manage their expectations – but if another offer lands in front of them while we’re waiting to hear back from you, there’s not much anyone can do.

Don’t let a sloppy, bloated hiring process stop you from getting the best people for your positions.

  • Make sure everyone who’s a part of the process knows from the very start about the necessary timeframe – it shouldn’t be too hard to convince your boss that it’s good for him to get a better quality candidate into the vacancy as soon as possible. Get the budget signed off before you start looking, not once you think you’ve got the right person.
  • Think about whether the role really requires you to meet the candidate in person, or if you can save everyone time by doing a video interview via Skype or a similar service.
  • Don’t be afraid to ask candidates if they have other offers or interviews happening, make sure you know what you need to stay ahead of.
  • If completely unavoidable complications and delays do arise – be honest about it. If you’re not talking to your search consultant, they have nothing to tell the candidate and the candidate has no way of knowing if they’re still in the process.

If you’re passionate about your organisation and are serious about hiring the right person, companies need to work with us in order to keep the process flowing and time frames as short as possible. Contact us on info@kindconsultancy.com or 01216432100 for a confidential discussion of your recruitment needs.

Mathew Kind

[This article first appeared on Matt’s LinkedIn. To make sure you don’t miss any posts from the Kind team, follow our company page]

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